CATS. 121 



Quadrupeds that prey on fish are' amphibious; such 

 is the otter, which, by nature, is so well formed for 

 diving, that it makes great havoc among the inhabit- 

 ants of the waters. Not supposing that we had any 

 of those beasts in our shallow brooks, I was much 

 pleased to see a male otter brought to me, weighing 

 twenty-one pounds, that had been shot on the bank 

 of our stream, below the Priory, where the rivulet 

 divides the parish of Selborne from Harteleywood. 



When he lived at Wallington, near Carshalton, in Surry, he had 

 a cat that was often known to plunge, without hesitation, into 

 the river Wandle, and swim over to an island at a little distance 

 from the bank. To this there could be no other inducement 

 than the fish she might catch on her passage, or the vermin that 

 the island afforded. W. J. 



" These are curious instances," says the editor of the London 

 Literary Gazette, in reviewing a former edition of this volume, 

 " but the following, which may be depended upon as a fact, is 

 still more remarkable. At Caverton Mill, in Roxburghshire, a 

 beautiful spot upon Kale Water, there was a favourite cat, do- 

 mesticated in the dwelling-house, which stood at two or three 

 hundred yards from the mill. When the mill-work ceased, the 

 water was, as usual, stopped at the dam-head, and the dam be - 

 low consequently ran gradually more shallow, often leaving 

 trout, which had ascended when it was full, to struggle back 

 with difficulty to the parent stream ; and so well acquainted had 

 puss become with this circumstance, and so fond was puss of 

 fish, the moment the noise of the mill-clapper ceased, she used 

 to scamper off to the dam, and, up to her belly in water, continue 

 to catch fish like an otter. It would not be easy to cite a more 

 curious case of animal instinct approaching to reason, and over- 

 coming the usual habits of the species." 



